.jpg) King fromThe Monticola, 1962 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1928-08-16)August 16, 1928 |
| Died | October 5, 2006(2006-10-05) (aged 78) Naples, Florida, U.S. |
| Listed height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Listed weight | 175 lb (79 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Stonewall Jackson (Charleston, West Virginia) |
| College | Charleston (1946–1950) |
| NBA draft | 1950: 8th round, 89th overall pick |
| Drafted by | Chicago Stags |
| Playing career | 1951–1958 |
| Position | Guard |
| Number | 3, 15 |
| Coaching career | 1957–1972 |
| Career history | |
Playing | |
| 1950–1951 | Phillips 66ers |
| 1951–1956 | Syracuse Nationals |
| 1957–1958 | Cincinnati Royals |
Coaching | |
| 1957 | Morris Harvey |
| 1958–1960 | West Virginia (assistant) |
| 1961–1965 | West Virginia |
| 1966–1972 | Purdue |
| Career highlights | |
| |
| Career statistics | |
| Points | 4,219 (10.3 ppg) |
| Rebounds | 1,606 (3.9 rpg) |
| Assists | 1,958 (4.8 apg) |
Stats at NBA.com  | |
| Stats atBasketball Reference | |
George Smith King Jr. (August 16, 1928 – October 5, 2006) was an American professionalbasketball player and collegiate coach. He was born inCharleston, West Virginia.
George King attended Morris Harvey College (now theUniversity of Charleston), where he led his team to four NCAA championship tournaments. He averaged 31.2 points per game in 1950 and scored a total of 2,535 points in 117 games in his college career. He received his A.B. degree in physical education in 1950. In both his junior and senior years, he was namedWest Virginia's Amateur Athlete of the Year.
George King was picked in the 8th round of the1950 NBA draft. He played for theBartlesville Phillips 66ers in 1950–1951.
In 1955, King led theSyracuse Nationals to theFinals, where he hit the series-clinching free throw in Game 7 and had a key steal to win the championship. After five seasons with the Nationals, he spent his last season in the NBA with theCincinnati Royals. He holds career averages of 10.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 4.8 assists a game in six seasons.
In 1956, King toured eleven Middle East countries with the Nationals for the Educational Exchange Service of the State Department. A year later, he became the first American to give basketball coaching clinics in Africa.
After his tenure with the Nationals, King spent a season coachingcollege basketball at hisalma mater, Morris Harvey,[1] before returning for his last season in the NBA with the Royals.
George King began his coaching career atWest Virginia University as an assistant under head coachFred Schaus. In 1961, he became the head coach after Schaus left for the chance to coach theLos Angeles Lakers. He coached theMountaineers with an overall record of 102–43 and led them to threeSouthern Conference tournament championships and threeNCAA tournaments.
Before King began his coaching career, he received his master's degree in physical education at WVU in 1957[2] (before he ended his NBA career).
King moved on to coaching atPurdue University, located inWest Lafayette, Indiana, where he took over for Ray Eddy at the head coaching position. During his tenure, he compiled a 109–64 record. In 1969, he led theBoilermakers to their firstBig Ten Championship in 29 years, and the first postseason appearance in school history. They made the most of it, advancing all the way to theNCAA title game, losing toJohn Wooden'sUCLA. In that 1968–69 season, Purdue led the nation with 94.8 points a game on a team that consisted of notable players such asRick Mount andBilly Keller. He was succeeded by his predecessor at West Virginia,Fred Schaus. He served as the school's athletic director from then on until 1992.
For the next 21 years as Purdue's seventh athletics director, King directed the Boilermaker program through a period of tremendous growth and change. He oversaw the emergence of women's athletics at the varsity level at Purdue in 1976–77. Extremely revered by his peers in the profession, King served as President of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), and chairperson of the NCAA's prestigious Committee on Committees and the NCAA Postseason Bowl (now known as Special Events) committee.[3]
He was one of the youngest AD's in the nation and was the only one who also coached in the 1971–72 season. King is a member of both the Purdue and the University of Charleston Athletic Halls of Fame.[2]
King received an honorary doctorate from the renamed University of Charleston in 1983, when he was also named recipient of a Distinguished Alumni Award. He was named to the prestigious Honors Committee of the National Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1982, and to the University of Charleston Athletic Hall of Fame in 1985. He also was honored as the recipient of NACDA's 1990 James J. Corbett Memorial Award.
King retired from Purdue in 1992 and was named to the school's Hall of Fame in 2001.[3]
King died at the age of 78 at the Hospice of Naples in Naples, Florida, around 11:30 a.m. of October 5, 2006, surrounded by his family. He is survived by his spouse of 57 years, Jeanne G. King; children George, Kristy Jeanne, Kathy Jan, Kerry Jo and Gordon Scott; 18 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; many nieces and nephews; and two sisters.[2]
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field goal percentage | FT% | Free throw percentage |
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
| † | Won anNBA championship | * | Led the league |
Source[4]
| Year | Team | GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | RPG | APG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951–52 | Syracuse | 66* | 28.6 | .406 | .712 | 4.2 | 3.7 | 10.0 |
| 1952–53 | Syracuse | 71 | 35.5 | .402 | .643 | 4.0 | 5.1 | 11.2 |
| 1953–54 | Syracuse | 72 | 32.9 | .376 | .627 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 11.3 |
| 1954–55† | Syracuse | 67 | 30.1 | .377 | .611 | 3.4 | 4.9 | 8.9 |
| 1955–56 | Syracuse | 72 | 32.5 | .372 | .640 | 3.5 | 5.7 | 10.3 |
| 1957–58 | Cincinnati | 63 | 36.1 | .364 | .617 | 4.9 | 5.3 | 9.7 |
| Career | 411 | 32.6 | .382 | .642 | 3.9 | 4.8 | 10.3 | |
| Year | Team | GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | RPG | APG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Syracuse | 6 | 34.5 | .352 | .679 | 4.8 | 3.9 | 9.5 |
| 1953 | Syracuse | 2 | 33.5 | .462 | .833 | 2.5 | 4.5 | 11.0 |
| 1954 | Syracuse | 10 | 28.6 | .403 | .603 | 2.2 | 2.1 | 8.8 |
| 1955† | Syracuse | 11* | 33.7 | .393 | .636 | 3.7 | 5.6 | 11.5 |
| 1956 | Syracuse | 8 | 39.6 | .361 | .792 | 5.9 | 7.5 | 14.2 |
| 1958 | Cincinnati | 2 | 39.5 | .250 | .667 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 9.0 |
| Career | 39 | 34.0 | .372 | .679 | 3.8 | 4.6 | 11.0 | |
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morris Harvey Golden Eagles(West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference)(1956–1957) | |||||||||
| 1956–57 | Morris Harvey | 12–12 | 8–7 | 7th | |||||
| Morris Harvey: | 12–12 (.500) | 8–7 (.533) | |||||||
| West Virginia Mountaineers(Southern Conference)(1960–1965) | |||||||||
| 1960–61 | West Virginia | 23–4 | 11–1 | 1st | |||||
| 1961–62 | West Virginia | 24–6 | 12–1 | 1st | NCAA University Division First Round | ||||
| 1962–63 | West Virginia | 23–8 | 11–2 | 1st | NCAA University Division Regional Third Place | ||||
| 1963–64 | West Virginia | 18–10 | 11–3 | 2nd | |||||
| 1964–65 | West Virginia | 14–15 | 8–6 | 4th | NCAA University Division First Round | ||||
| West Virginia: | 102–43 (.703) | 53–13 (.803) | |||||||
| Purdue Boilermakers(Big Ten Conference)(1965–1972) | |||||||||
| 1965–66 | Purdue | 8–16 | 4–10 | T–9th | |||||
| 1966–67 | Purdue | 15–9 | 7–7 | T–5th | |||||
| 1967–68 | Purdue | 15–9 | 9–5 | 3rd | |||||
| 1968–69 | Purdue | 23–5 | 13–1 | 1st | NCAA University Division Runner-up | ||||
| 1969–70 | Purdue | 18–6 | 11–3 | 2nd | |||||
| 1970–71 | Purdue | 18–7 | 11–3 | 3rd | NIT First Round | ||||
| 1971–72 | Purdue | 12–12 | 6–8 | T–5th | |||||
| Purdue: | 109–64 (.630) | 61–37 (.622) | |||||||
| Total: | 223–119 (.652) | ||||||||
National champion Postseason invitational champion | |||||||||